RFduino Forum

Title: Just a little info about Sparkfun
Post by: Wayne on October 17, 2017, 01:37:22 PM

Hi all,

Sparkfun had a limited supply of RFD77101 a few weeks back. I needed some to do some demo boards and thought I get 10.I had 6 boards made and 4 are bad. Some will report back the PID and all but not program1 Gets hot and the other is shorted.

These cam package in clear plastic sealed bags that did not look anti static.Fortunately, I have 3 from Digikey that I can get 3 out of boards repaired.

We've run into the same issue with an order of 50 Simblees. Out of 50 we got 13 good, the rest bad. (Same non-protective plastic bags.) This is likely due to ESD and/or moisture from to improper packaging. SparkFun are currently investigating and may offer us either replacements or refund. You might call their customer service as they might offer you the same.

How do you assemble? If reflow oven, do you bake Simblees before reflowing? We've found this to be necessary. We starting assembling boards last winter when it's dry here (Alberta, Canada). All was well, then as spring approached (higher humidity), we starting getting more failures. Finally tracked it down to moisture issues. We started baking before reflow and our failure rate went to zero. DigiKey and Mouser use proper packaging but they label Simblee as MSL 3. I called RF Digital about this and they say it's MSL 6, which means mandatory baking before reflowing.

All the parts from Digikey we had no issues with the parts. Here in Salt Lake City, Humidity is very low..All the time. The failure so far was 4 out of 6. Have 4 in bags.. I have contacted Sparkfun about the issue with plastic bags used for shipping. I would think Sparkfun be up of Static procedures.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that Simblee's MSL classification has not been properly documented/communicated for both distributors and customers. We've wasted a lot of chips/money due to this issue. The data sheet still says MSL: TBD, and DigiKey and Mouser label as MSL 3, not 6.

We typically bake at 125°C for 10 hours, then reflow within a couple hours. The recommendation from RF Digital is 125°C for 8-12 hours, then reflow within 6 hours.

It is rather unfortunate that SparkFun has been mishandling Simblees. From posts here, it's appears clear that their non-protective packaging is indeed the cause of so many failures. Simblee is very sensitive.

Hope all will be resolved very soon. And hoping for new supply to flow through DigiKey and Mouser much sooner than current estimates (10-14 weeks).